Modern Slivers

I'm going to play in a local PPTQ with my slivers deck next week. The local meta is one I know well, and although there will be some new decks I expect I'll be fine against most. However, last competition I lost against Jund. Badly. This time, there will be multiple Jund decks around, and I still haven't found a way to beat them. I'm even thinking of playing Leyline of Sanctity 4x sideboard to help against this matchup, but do we have any other cards that help against Jund that I might not be aware of? 4x Diffusion wasn't enough

Jund is difficult because they offer premium discard, removal, and a quick clock. This is in someways why Grixis Death Shadow is trouble for slivers. We can beat jund. They can have hands that line up perfectly with what we are doing and that will suck for us, but they can have hands that don't. We can have highly aggressive hands that will get them or we can have long grindy hands that will get them in the end.

Slivers can grind as well as be aggressive.

Diffusion Sliver, Sedge Sliver, Frenetic Sliver, Sliver Hivelord with a dash of Mindlash Sliver, Cautery Sliver, and Darkheart sliver are our best protection spells. The last 3 are for providing some value for their removal, the first four can make their mana difficult.

Warping Wail does eliminate Dark Confident and Damnation which they will probably play. Chameleon Colossus is probably one of our best Beaters in this matchup.

It will depend on what they have, and might need to start aggressive but prepared to play a more tempo game with Necrotic Sliver, Sedge Sliver etc.

You could shave aether vials on the draw for more slivers and then bring them back in on the play if you win a game. Merfolk does this.

Dismembers could also be good kill spells.

I think the key will be to recognize or guess the strategy they will go for and whether or not Damnation is in their hand for over extending reasons.

I think Unclaimed Territory goes into a different deck than the current CoCo/Vial deck.

I am thinking you might want to drop CoCo all together and rely more on Small Slivers and Vial for a straight up stompy/aggro plan ala pauper slivers or legacy all-in slivers. Sedge Sliver is a house, but I wouldn't play him while also playing Unclaimed Territory. Mutavault is too valuable to give up as well are chances for the forest and swamp in the current lists.

I think if you want to play with Unclaimed Territory you should take inspriation from the All-In Legacy Sliver lists, the Pauper Sliver lists, and the Modern Fast Sliver lists. They are all viable, but have clear weaknesses which might make it worse for competitive modern play that the current Sedge Sliver lists can work around.

Sedge Sliver lists can grind better than these lists. The classic Aggressive lists can be better though against minimum disruption lists and other aggro lists. Losing CoCo hurts against our explosiveness, combat tricks, and recovery. Fast Lists though are better and more consistant at goldfishing turn 3-5 wins, but have worse recovery. The more non-sliver spells you add such as Vial, Dismember, Warping Wail, the less concentration of slivers you will have when you draw. Its a trade off.

I am not sure its worth it, but in the last few pages there were lists and look at them, improve them, play with them, and see what happens. I eagerly await testing.

Red XIII do you have problems with playing around your own Root Maze? Also, why 4 Homing Slivers? Are they not too mana expensive for casting, and too many for tutoring Megantic and Telekinetic? I'm not much of specialist, but I would try to play as many 1-drops as possible, especially Virulent Sliver that is in your colors and ends game on itself? And it stacks. Poison 1-mana slivers may be actually faster than waiting for Megantic to show up, or as alternative win condition. There is actually nice synegry around that play, several 1-drops, and either lock opponent with mana/spell deny while beating, or play mana sliver to turn 1-drops into mana dorks to cast Megantic and swing next turn. Also, once you have Virulent on board let's say on turn 2 (turn 1 Root Maze), opponent is put under pressure, while you can hold mana for counters. If it isn't budget deck, you may also consider Aether Vial, to sneak slivers on battlefield while keeping mana for anserws, or if lands doesn't come. I like Faithless Looting here, it looks great (on paper at least). So:
4x Striking Sliver, 4x Diffusion Sliver, 4x Virulent Sliver, 2x Gemhide Sliver, 2x Megantic Sliver
Not sure about Venom. Can anyone actually play effective and dangerous creature against your deck? Play 1-drop insted? Sidewinder Sliver could wreck Lingering Souls and other 1/1 tokens.
Cautery Sliver is as I understand for something like Devoted Druid or Noble Hierarch?
1-2x Telekinetic Sliver. Too good in this deck not to play, but 4 mana.
4x Sleep isn't too much? I feel 2 would suffice. You could play with 2 Lead the Stampede and 1 Spell Pierce maindeck. Or another sliver. Or some bounce spell.
Since all lands already enter the battlefield tapped anyway, maby change City of Brass and\or Mana Confluence into tap lands? You have way too many lands that keeps pinging you every tap. You can even go for unplayable otherwise 3-color lands, name Frontier Bivouac. Anything that comes tapped and gives bonus for it, like scry. Abuse your game style as much as possible.
If you however want quick tempo with little control, reduce deck from cards that are least devoted to your plan, and play creatures with disruption. Since you play red, even Lightning Bolt and other burn finishers would suffice.
Hope I helped.

AyronnaGalerider Sliver. I can't count how many times this guy won me game out of nowhere, Jund only plays 1 Olivia with flying. Topdecking Galerider often equals win. Hand disruption hurts, so Liliana of the Veil, Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, sometimes also Death Shadow. Rest preety much like Worldsaverinc said. Warping Wail, Chameleon Colossus, Sedge Sliver, Hivelord, Dismember, Diffusion Sliver. I would consider sideboarding out Aether Vials, for same reason as for Grixis Death Shadow. To have more anserws and treats than they.

I'm going to play in a local PPTQ with my slivers deck next week. The local meta is one I know well, and although there will be some new decks I expect I'll be fine against most. However, last competition I lost against Jund. Badly. This time, there will be multiple Jund decks around, and I still haven't found a way to beat them. I'm even thinking of playing Leyline of Sanctity 4x sideboard to help against this matchup, but do we have any other cards that help against Jund that I might not be aware of? 4x Diffusion wasn't enough

Play Fast Slivers, they were very good vs Jund. If your meta has low Bolt counts and little creature decks replace one Mutagenic with Apostle's Blessing, Phantasmal Image or Striking Sliver
If thats not what you are asking for
Dont play Leylines, play 2 Relic of Progenitus

My last chance at a PPTQ this season is tomorrow a couple hours drive from me, not sure I even want to go since I havent played much lately due to illness and still havent fully recovered. I know the place its being held at to be a very small shop so Im guessing it'll be less than 30 players. That alone makes me want to try because of it being so small. If I go I'll be sure to post results afterward. Any suggestions, should I stay or should I go?

I ended up staying home and resting. A few more days and I'll be reasonably back to normal. Time to start working up to grand prix OKC in December. Had anyone got any testing in with new lists and unclaimed territory?

I ended up staying home and resting. A few more days and I'll be reasonably back to normal. Time to start working up to grand prix OKC in December. Had anyone got any testing in with new lists and unclaimed territory?

I played about 20 matches with updated Fast Slivers (Unclaimed Territory), deck is good. Second main Mutagenic isnt as strong as before but is playable

I played few small "tournaments" (less than 10 players) over past week, haven't reported them due to terrible results, played against WU Control, WG Vizier Elves, Mardu Superfriends and WB Smallpox. All of them lost 0-2. Overall, I suffer from slivers weak spots, which are card draw, bad topdecks (four Galerider Slivers in a row, then Aether Vial against control), running out of gas, board wipes, single removal (played 2 lords on empty board, both got Fatal Push), chump-block with spirits, being locked by planeswalkers, etc. WU Control clears my slivers easly with turn 3 Gideon of the Trials +1, Path to Exile Sedge Sliver, Supreme Verdict 4 slivers in play, gideon's + on Mutavault every turn, and suddenly I have no cards in hand, opponent have 4, planeswalker on board and who knows what else. Lack of interaction hurts with elves, I can't reliably kill opponent before he assembles Ezuri-Vizier-Devoted combo. Which is strange,this deck in theory should had hard time holding me off. There are much more planeswalkers seeing play lately, which give me hard time. Even if I manage to take down one, it already did fine job in either killing my slivers, disrupting strategy, generating advantage over me, and I must either commit my all force to it (Lingering Souls), or go for player and get terribly torn by abilities. I mean, seriously, last couple of weeks were terrible. Necrotic Sliver does good job taking out planeswalkers, manlands and certain threats, but it never actually feel good to use it, costs 6 mana without Vial, sliver and usually results in losing Necrotic anyway. I'm taking out Sedge Sliver for a while, regeneration does not help much with all these Damnation and exile I'm having in my meta. Syphon Sliver leaves main deck now, Darkheart takes it's place. Syphon can enable you massive life gains I admit, but Darkheart works at instant speed, gives some profit against spot removal, and proves more reliable. I also moves fourth Diffusion to main, as well as Dormant Sliver (with more sac/blink abilities defender should be less of a problem), Homing and Megantic Sliver for little testing.
Ayronna, how did you do in PPTQ?

I'm going to participate in MtG Nationals this weekend, with list down here. You guys have some advices for me? I decided to go with standard sliver list, for little better durability. I don't have slightest idea what I may face there, any help would be great

Lifecrafter's Bestiary is the opposition of Vial, no point of playing both
If you want to go grind way replace Vials with some lands and slivers
Otherwise replace Bestiary with Striking, Sentinel or Dismember

Good point guys, I totally missed that vial-bestiary thing. Pokedex out, I'll move Dismembers to main, I feel it may be important to play interaction in 60 for variety of decks. Two slots in sideboard left, I think about Sentinel(race), Homing(search), Syphon(burn/race), Dormant(on control) or Blur. Or Psionic Sliver.

I have been doing a little online slivering. Not any tournaments because I still need practice to not go to time which I have done even in my practice games.

There are just a lot of interactions that make it so we can't just speed through turns. Here I am just griping about MTGO at the moment.

I haven't faced a lot of top decks. Storm was a loss unless we can get enough threats or vial and back it up with Warping Wail if they go for it. We need to force them to go for it or Warping Wail will have little effect even if we blow up the dork.

I am looking at the new Simic Merfolk and it plays a lot like how Fast Slivers would. The issue for slivers is that we don't have the 12 cantrip spells that Simic Merfolk has to stay relevant past the first few turns, nor the countermagic or possibility for grindier stuff.

I am after MtG Nationals, reporting in, but I could only attend to Sunday's part. Event included tournaments in Standard, Standard Draft and Modern, total of few hundred people. However, great most of them participated in Standard/Draft, which left Modern with about 20-30 players (5 rounds). Playing decks were among others Tron (a lot of), UW Control, Ponza, Storm, UR Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Jeskai Control, Smallpox, some deck using Ensnaring Bridge, Titan Shift. Many people droped event after 1-2 loses. So let's wade into battle:

UW Control 0-2
First mach was against guy from my local meta, so we perfectly knew what each other play. And he exploited that perfectly. Both games he had perfect anserws for my every move, game 1 I got him down to 12, game 2 to 9, but I simply stood no chance, even with Diffusion turn 2 both games. Once board got stabilized, there was nothing I could do.
Sideboard IN: 1x Diffusion Sliver, 2x Frenetic Sliver, 3x Harmonic Sliver, 1x Sliver Hivelord, 1x Dormant Sliver; OUT: 4x Galerider Sliver, 1x Gemhide Sliver, 1x Syphon Sliver, 2x Dismember.

Ad Nauseam 2-0
It was my first time with this deck, but I did rather well and little lucky. First game I saw opponent playing Blue/Black Scrylands, suspend lotus and 4 Serum Visions in a row, so decided to go in tempo damage, attacking with Mutavaults rather than casting sliver and leaving them in summon sickness. I developed board, hit him down to 4, then he casted Angel's Grace, discarded Simian Spirit Guide, and played Ad Nauseam, drew entire deck with losing life down to -50, with last 3 mana played Phyrexian Unlife and passed turn. I was able to deal him about 8 damage this turn, but from beggining of game I had Necrotic Sliver in hand, four mana and few slivers with Manaweft, so I went safely and played Necrotic. Opponent had at least one Pact of Negation in hand, but could do nothing due to Cavern of Souls. I sacrificed Galerider Sliver to destroy Phyrexian Unlife and that was it. Game 2 I had near perfect curve, opponent found no answer nor engine piece, and eventually dropped game.
Sideboard IN: 3x Harmonic Sliver, 1x Homing Sliver; OUT: 2x Dismember, 1x Syphon Sliver, 1x Darkheart Sliver.

UB Fearies 2-0
I never got hit in these games. First one I just kept playing slivers and very soon they were out of opponent's range. He played Bitterblossom on second turn, but barely anything else. Galerider and Diffusion gave him most trouble I think. In last turns opponent tried to ambush me with 3/1 flash fearie, which I responded with lord out of Vial, and that was it. Game 2 opponent kept deadly risky hand with only one land, and that killed him, for he stayed on that for three another turns. It was too much to make any return, especially since he admited later he had no Damnation in deck at all.
Sideboard IN: 2x Warping Wail, 1x Diffusion Sliver, 3x Harmonic Sliver; OUT: 1x Sedge Sliver, 2x Dismember, 2x Necrotic Sliver, 1x Aether Vial.

BG Tron 0-2
Both of these games were completly in my favor, opponent had poor hand, struggled to get tron online, lacked aswers to hold me. Yet I did not use this. Instead I got stuck on 1/1 slivers on board. Game 1 I safely played Collected Company on my turn 4, and saw 4 lands, Aether Vial and Dismember. Barely did any damage, it was so bad that opponent eventually had to take game over. Game 2 went same way, opponent had almost zero interaction with me, I played few laughable threats before he assembled tron and Ugin cleared me out. Frenetic failed me with 4 slivers of 5 including himself. And it was over.
Sideboard IN: 1x Telekinetic Sliver, 2x Frenetic Sliver, 3x Harmonic Sliver, 1x Diffusion Sliver; OUT: 2x Dismember, 1x Syphon Sliver, 1x Sedge Sliver, 2x Aether Vial, 1x Darkheart Sliver.

BG Tron 1-2
Another Tron, but this time we at least had some game. Not first though, because Karn-turn-3. Game 2 I played Aether Vial, Galerider, Predatory and Gemhide before Tron assembled and Karn hit Predatory away (his 3 turn). Luckly I had Vial on 2 counters and Sinew in hand, so on endstep I played him and killed Karn following turn. Opponent tried to lock me with Betterskull, but got locked himself by Harmonic Sliver, and every another sliver perfectly coming when needed. Batterskull avoided trigger by returning to hand, forcing me to destroy my own Vial, but I had upper hand. I tried to abuse my luck before some bomb drops and screws me, so we were at race. Opponent played Wurmcoil Engine, which I destroyed with Galerider's enter trigger, but 2 tokens remained. He equipped deathtouch with Batterskull, and attacked for 10 lifelink damage. I had useless Warping Wail in hand and Eldrazi Scion fell under wheels, still healing him to 11. I managed to lethal in next swing. Game 3 was all about surviving one more turn. Tron sticked early, Karn went in, followed by Ugin. Like previous player did not had Tron for like ages, this one had it every game. AND Karn on hand.
Sideboard IN: 1x Telekinetic Sliver, 2x Frenetic Sliver, 3x Harmonic Sliver, 1x Diffusion Sliver, 2x Warping Wail; OUT: 2x Dismember, 1x Syphon Sliver, 3x Sedge Sliver, 2x Aether Vial, 1x Darkheart Sliver.

Tournament started really awful for me, but I never actually thought about top 8 or winning when coming here in a first place. As rounds went, there was real chance for me to get there with my results, but that 4th round with Tron ended my struggle indefinitly. I felt realy down for this one, not because it kicked me out of top 8 (I belive), not because mistakes, but because it was game impossible to lose. Otherwise, I played really interesting matches with slivers, but I also see how much we lack bombs in our decklists, ones that unanswered takes over game for itself. Getting into topdeck mode with empty board is impossibly hard to get out. I cannot point any particular card that was especially good, but they worked together well. Overall.
Sorry for long delay, I had some internet issues.

I am looking at the new Simic Merfolk and it plays a lot like how Fast Slivers would. The issue for slivers is that we don't have the 12 cantrip spells that Simic Merfolk has to stay relevant past the first few turns, nor the countermagic or possibility for grindier stuff.